It often desirable that electrical connector assemblies for mounting on printed circuit ;boards be of a low profile, that is, extend only a short distance above the surface of the printed circuit board, to permit a plurality of printed circuit boards to be closely spaced together in densely packed electronic equipment.
A known electrical connector assembly of this type comprises a post header including a row of post contacts secured in a first insulating housing, one end of each post contact extending out of the housing for recepit in a hole in a printed circuit board and the other end of the post contact being turned back to define a resilient hooked portion which extends about a support rib which extends from a wall of the first housing in the mating direction, the free end of the hooked portion being spaced from the wall, and a female connector including a row of female contacts secured in a second insulating housing, each female contact having a fork contact at one end and a wire-connecting portion at the other end, the fork contact of the female contact resiliently engaging the corresponding hooked portion of the post contact when the female connector and the post header are mated.
The advantage of this known electrical connector is that the resilient hooked portion of the post contact provides relatively small resistance to insertion in the forked female contact, which may, therefore, have relatively short forked arms so that a low profile female connector can be realized.
However, the female contact of the known electrical connector assembly has a contact portion and a wire-connecting portion which are aligned in the longitudinal direction; therefore, the female contact has a long length, thereby preventing the electrical connector assembly from having a low profile.